Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 3, 1993 TAG: 9305030095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Short
"He came on extremely short notice," said Daniel P. Jordan, Monticello's executive director.
Weeks went into preparing Monticello for then President-elect Bill Clinton's visit at the beginning of his inaugural journey. Arrangements for former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's visit last month, part of Jefferson's 250th birthday celebration, also took much planning.
The Dalai Lama called about 20 minutes before his arrival Saturday.
Jordan and his wife, Lou, who were taking the day off, rushed to the grounds and gave the Dalai Lama a personal tour. Jordan gave him the only Monticello memorabilia he had dashed out of the house with: a nickel.
"It just happened to be in my pocket," Jordan said.
The Dalai Lama came and went without saying why he was in the area or where he and his entourage of about 10 people were headed after the visit, Jordan said.
The Dalai Lama, who attended the opening of the Holocaust Museum in Washington last week, is known to be a close friend of Jeffrey Hopkins, the director of Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Virginia, faculty members said.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after an unsuccessful revolt against the Communist Chinese, apparently was delighted to visit Monticello, Jordan said.
"He seemed captivated by Monticello and expressed his belief that Jefferson was truly a great man," he said.
by CNB